Low-Tech Survival Skills

[Flowergarden]

Originally Posted by acrosome

[*] Traps, if not covered by Survival[*] PS (Tanner) if not covered by Leatherworking

Small traps are coverd by survival, big one are covered by traps (low tech companion 3)
Tanner isn't covered but defaults to leatherworking -3

[stranger38]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Housekeeping covers basic cooking, sewing etc. So that instead of the seperate skills might be more useful.

Housekeeping in our games is the most important skill haha. nothing beats it.

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Maybe a point, to give you something to insist you actually know about the concepts of sterility, shock and heat stroke. The problem is basically the same as Physician though: it's difficult to use on yourself, [especially] when you really need it. Essential for a group situation, but maybe not worth spending the points you might need for something with a higher percentage change of helping for an individual.

Coming late to the party, but I agree. The prudent bushwhacker relies more on not getting hurt and not eating the poison berries than on fixing themselves up when they do. All my years of group camping -- and with my medical knowledge and the paramedics' crash kit I'd have with me -- I had to deal with a serious situation exactly once.

[stranger38]

Originally Posted by Rupert

It covers very basic sewing..

When you say very basic sewing you mean mending and repairing?

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by stranger38

When you say very basic sewing you mean mending and repairing?

Sewing gives an example of sewing on a button for a +4 bonus task, and those are the tasks Housekeeping lets you do. If it's +4 to sew on a button, repairing tears and applying patches should be no better than +3, and thus not a Housekeeping roll, but a Sewing roll. +4 would mean a basic repair of a split seam, sewing on a button, and not much else.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Sewing gives an example of sewing on a button for a +4 bonus task, and those are the tasks Housekeeping lets you do. If it's +4 to sew on a button, repairing tears and applying patches should be no better than +3, and thus not a Housekeeping roll, but a Sewing roll. +4 would mean a basic repair of a split seam, sewing on a button, and not much else.

Have you done any sewing? I'd rate properly attaching a button to be a substantially harder task than crudely mending a tear, let alone slapping on a patch, with a running stitch. And fixing a split seam is almost the same process as doing a [good] job those. Admittedly a lot of button repairs probably are [not] properly attached.

Still, mending clothing is definitely in the realm of Housekeeping, and cutting and assembling clothing is at least arguable if all you care about is functionality rather than style or comfort.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Have you done any sewing? I'd rate properly attaching a button to be a substantially harder task than crudely mending a tear, let alone slapping on a patch, with a running stitch. And fixing a split seam is almost the same process as doing a [good] job those. Admittedly a lot of button repairs probably are [not] properly attached.

I have and I don't consider re-attaching a button at all hard. Nor is doing a not very good job of sewing a seam back together. I think doing a repair job on a tear or sewing on a patch is harder.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Have you done any sewing? I'd rate properly attaching a button to be a substantially harder task than crudely mending a tear, let alone slapping on a patch, with a running stitch. And fixing a split seam is almost the same process as doing a [good] job those. Admittedly a lot of button repairs probably are [not] properly attached.

Still, mending clothing is definitely in the realm of Housekeeping, and cutting and assembling clothing is at least arguable if all you care about is functionality rather than style or comfort.

Yeah, Housekeeping should work fine for relatively-simple repairs - reattaching a button, applying a patch, mending a tear, etc. I'd also be inclined to allow it to be used to make things like blankets, ponchos, and very simple skirts (which would need a belt to hold them on, but likely wouldn't have belt loops; I don't know if anything like this existed historically, but you could probably sew the simple skirt onto the bottom of the poncho to hold it on). However, for something long-term like that (rather than just keeping the clothes you started out with from falling apart), you're probably going to want Professional Skill (Clothmaker) and/or Professional Skill (Tanner) to actually make the raw materials (although Survival is probably sufficient to turn animal skin into rawhide with a built-in fur lining). For a minimum number of needed skills, you may want to just stick to using leather - Leatherworking is sufficient to make clothing out of leather, and Professional Skill (Tanner) defaults to Leatherworking at -3.

[fritzbc]

Sewing on a button or crudely fixing a hole or tear would 100% fall under housekeeping. I have fixed pieces of clothing and sewed buttons back on with ease and no training.

[acrosome]

Hmm. After thinking about it, should Housekeeping might be similar to Soldier skill? It should allow you to do lots of tasks that are better covered by other skills, if that task is normally +4?

It allow fire starting, like Survival.
It probably allows simple meal prep, like Cooking
We discussed buttons, like Sewing.

Or do I need to resort to Soldier (Suburban)? :)